VacationSelector
The Guggenheim Museum on the river, Bilbao
BilbaoThe Guggenheim Museum on the river
A cobbled street of painted houses in Old San Juan, San Juan
San JuanA cobbled street of painted houses in Old San Juan

Photos: Bilbao by José Ligero Loarte, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; San Juan by Mohan Nannapaneni, Pexels License.

Bilbao or San Juan?

Our verdict in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities, and the climate month by month, so you can choose for your trip.

Choose Bilbao for

  • getting around
  • day trips
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Bilbao’s own page.

Choose San Juan for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on San Juan’s own page.

Scoreboard

Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.

Beaches & swimming. Bilbao 45, San Juan 84: San Juan leads by 39 points.
Food & drink. Bilbao 81, San Juan 66: Bilbao leads by 15 points.
Culture & sights. Bilbao 62, San Juan 64: San Juan leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Bilbao 54, San Juan 70: San Juan leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bilbao 75, San Juan 74: Bilbao leads by 1 points.
Day trips. Bilbao 78, San Juan 52: Bilbao leads by 26 points.
Good for families. Bilbao 55, San Juan 58: San Juan leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Bilbao 79, San Juan 38: Bilbao leads by 41 points.
Shopping & style. Bilbao 47, San Juan 50: San Juan leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Bilbao 44, San Juan 38: Bilbao leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bilbao 53, San Juan 55: San Juan leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bilbao 33, San Juan 40: San Juan leads by 7 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bilbao and San Juan.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Bilbao
59match

Wins on getting around and day trips with your weighting.

San Juan
57match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Bilbao in July

25 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
54 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

San Juan in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
153 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
28 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
BilbaoSan Juan

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Bilbao: 1991-2020 normals, Bilbao / Sondica (4.1 km from centre). San Juan: 1991-2020 normals, San Juan / Int., Puerto Rico (12.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBilbaoSan Juan
Official languageSpanishSpanish, English
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-4
Emergency number112911
Elevation19 m3 m
Main airportBilbao Airport (BIO)5 km from centre73 non-stop destinationsLuis Munoz Marin International Airport (SJU)12 km from centre59 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days21 days

By the numbers

MeasureBilbaoSan Juan
City population351,124342,259
People per km²8,4402,847
Museums within 10 km1718
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C1 month12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Bilbao or San Juan somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Rainfall where no rain gauge is within 25 km is from the TerraClimate 1991-2020 climatology (Abatzoglou et al. 2018, Scientific Data), read at the city. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Non-stop route lists from the "Airlines and destinations" tables on English Wikipedia airport articles, by Wikipedia contributors, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Currency from the ISO 4217 register maintained by SIX, cross-checked against country data from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. Time zones from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0); clock offsets computed from the IANA time zone database. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.